


Unstoppable

by Wordancer



Category: Terminator (Movies), Terminator - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-02-01 00:53:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21301955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wordancer/pseuds/Wordancer
Summary: They are unstoppable.
Relationships: Sarah Connor/The Terminator
Comments: 12
Kudos: 61





	Unstoppable

**Author's Note:**

> I saw T2 this weekend, and let me tell you, The Terminator Family dynamic they had going on was a missed opportunity.

They spend precious minutes collecting the Terminator’s arm from the gear where it lies partially crushed.

“How are we going to fix this?” John asks his mother.

“We’ll find a way,” Sarah says grimly. The Terminator follows them as they walk out of the factory, silent save for the scrape of his damaged leg on the ground. The far-off sound of approaching sirens makes them rush to leave the scene.

They rent a small two bedroom in a city across the border, and Sarah starts looking for work. They hide the Terminator from view, and he spends a large amount of time powered down in the living room, healing his flesh wounds. Sarah has picked up some repair skill from her time dating a mechanic, and with the Terminator’s guidance, she starts fixing him up. It takes months before he is back to looking human, and by then, Sarah has found work cleaning houses and can afford better tools to work on the Terminator’s arm. By the end of it, he looks almost back to normal, except that his fist won’t fully close, and the pupil of his right eye still has a reddish tinge.

John starts going to the local school and picks up a pidgin version of Spanish that is barely enough to get by. One evening, as Sarah works on the Terminator’s arm, John works on his back story.

“We have to come up with a name for you,” John starts.

“Okay,” the Terminator says, obediently bending his arm so that Sarah can get a better view of a stubborn bolt.

John stares thoughtfully at the Terminator’s face. “Ben. Ben Connor.”

“Ben?” asks the Terminator.

“Ben,” says John.

“Connor?” Sarah asks.

“He can be my uncle,” John says.

“That won’t fly,” says Sarah.

John frowns. “Why?”

“The moment people find out he’s living with us in a two-bedroom, they’ll wonder where he sleeps. Make him my husband. That’ll have the added benefit of discouraging scumbags from flirting with me.” Sarah is currently fending off the advances of the local drug dealer, and her view of men has taken a dim turn.

“Okay, fine,” John says. “Wait, do I have to call him Dad? That’s weird.”

“So he’s your step-dad,” Sarah says. “Call him by his first name.”

“That’s all right, then,” John decides.

Once Sarah has done as much repair work as she can, and the Terminator has finished healing, they debate whether or not he should get a job.

“He can do it,” John insists.

“What if he kills someone by accident,” Sarah worries.

“He won’t,” John says.

“How do you know?” Sarah asks.

“I’ve taught him the value of human life. And he’s sworn not to kill anyone. Right, Ben?”

“That is correct,” the Terminator says.

“What kind of work could he even do?” Sarah asks.

“How about a bodyguard?” John suggests.

“That seems like it’s asking for trouble,” Sarah says.

“Security guard!” John exclaims. “All he’d have to do is say hi to people. I bet he can even speak Spanish, so that’s taken care of. Right, Ben?”

“Right,” says the Terminator.

“…maybe,” Sarah says. “We’ll have to practice his hello.”

“He can do it. He already knows how to smile,” John says proudly. “Show her, Ben.”

The Terminator grimaces.

“Why don’t you go for the strong and silent type,” Sarah says.

“Yeah, that’d probably suit him better,” John says. “Okay, Ben, your new job is protecting people, if you’re going to be a security guard. You’re good at that, so it should be no sweat.”

They get Ben an interview at the nearest bank, and his flawless Spanish skills and even more impressive aim get him hired on the spot.

“We should celebrate,” John says, when Ben comes home and shares the news.

“I’ll go get some groceries, and we’ll have a nice dinner,” Sarah says. “Can you even eat?” She asks Ben.

“No,” Ben says.

“We should go out. Live a little,” John says. “He can’t spend all his time in the apartment or at work. He has to see the world. So do we.”

“I guess,” Sarah says. She takes them to the neighborhood bar, and they get a table in the back corner. She orders Ben a beer to have something in front of him, and she and John treat themselves to a plate of ribs. “It’s really something that you found work so fast, Ben,” Sarah says when the food arrives.

“Yeah, we’re proud of you,” says John. “Were you nervous at all, before the interview?”

“No,” says Ben.

“Well, well, lookie here,” a man in a leather vest swaggers up to their table. It's the local drug dealer, back to make Sarah’s life that little bit worse. “The local beauty, out and about for once?”

Sarah gives an aggrieved sigh and looks away, but that’s not enough to stop her admirer from leaning over the table to give her an exaggerated once over.

“Hey, leave my mom alone!” John yells.

“John, don’t get into it,” Sarah hisses at her son.

The Terminator stands from his seat, grabs the man by the back of his neck, and slams his face into the table.

“Ow, shit!” The man says and staggers back from the table, holding his nose, which starts to bleed. “She’s not that hot, man, relax!”

“Leave.” The Terminator says, standing in front of their table.

Sarah covers her face. “Oh my god,” she whispers. “Let’s go,” she tells Ben and John and slaps down enough money to cover their meal before leading them out of the bar. John is full of energy back at the apartment, crowing about the Terminator’s handling of the situation despite Sarah’s insistence that the violence was unnecessary. As it gets late, Sarah alternates between cajoling and threatening John into bed. When the door to his room finally closes, the silence in the living room is noticeable in the absence of John’s excited babble.

Sarah turns from the door to John’s room and looks at the Terminator, who is standing by the window and looking down at the street. “You didn’t have to do that, you know. I can take care of myself.”

“I know,” says the Terminator.

“Why did you do it?”

The Terminator turns from the window and looks at her square on. “My job is to protect.”

Sarah crosses her arms. “I can protect myself.”

“I can help.” The Terminator says evenly.

Sarah thinks about that, letting her arms fall back down to her sides. “I guess that’s okay.”

The Terminator gives one sharp nod and goes back to looking out the window. “Good.”

“What are you looking for?”

“Signs of retribution.”

“Ah.” Sarah sighs and slumps onto the couch. “Do you really think that guy’s going to round up some friends and follow us home?”

“Previous observation of male behavior would suggest it.”

Sarah huffs out a laugh. “Great. Just what I need.” She gives the Terminator a narrow eyed look. “When did you become such an expert on human behavior?”

“My job involves surveillance of the general population.”

“True.” Sarah runs a hand over her face. “I don’t think he’ll go that far. As he said, I’m not that hot.”

“The data indicates that you are within the normal temperature range for a healthy human.”

Sarah laughs. “No, he meant hot like attractive. I’m not that attractive.”

“The data suggests that you are.”

“Uh…” Sarah stares at the Terminator. “What data?” The Terminator opens his mouth, and Sarah holds up a hand. “No, forget it, I don’t want to know. I’m going to bed. Good night.” She gets up from the sofa and walks to her room, pausing in the doorway. “Wake me up if that guy gets up a posse and attacks in the night.”

“Okay.”

No attack comes in the night, and it takes a week before the guy turns up again like a bad penny, this time with a couple of his friends, and harasses Sarah as she walks back home after work. She walks as fast as possible without breaking into a run, ignoring the catcalls as best she can. Half a block from home, she literally runs into the Terminator, on his way back from his post at the bank. They share a look, and the Terminator hands her his baton before they turn as one to face the group. Sarah manages to get in a few good cracks with the baton before the Terminator wipes the floor with them, to the astonishment of passers by.

“Thanks,” Sarah hands the baton back.

“You are welcome.” The Terminator slides the baton into the holster at his hip. Sarah thinks privately that he cuts a dashing figure in his uniform, and then immediately regrets thinking it. They walk home, and she feels like a teenager on a first date, except the date doesn’t end at the front door, because they both walk in.

“Mom!” John says in greeting, and Sarah breathes a sigh of relief. “You won’t believe what happened at school today.” He goes on to tell his story, and Sarah oohs and aahs in all the appropriate places as she gets dinner started. She doesn’t tell him about what happened in the streets outside their apartment, and the Terminator doesn’t contribute to the conversation.

Life goes on as before, except Sarah has an extra awareness of where the Terminator is at all times in their small apartment. It adds an additional tension to her day, but she’s good at dealing. She can handle it.

She believes that until one day a few months later. Sarah and the Terminator get home at around the same time each day, so they’ve taken to walking the last block or two together when their paths intersect. A flower seller that has taken to wolf whistling at Sarah when she walks past decides on that day to walk up to her and ask her out.

“Hey mama, how about taking a chance on me tonight, you, me, and a candlelit dinner, what do you say?” The flower seller steps in front of her, stopping her in her tracks.

“Can’t, I’m taken,” Sarah says before she thinks.

“Taken by who?”

Sarah looks at the Terminator, braces herself, and grabs his hand and wraps his arm around her waist. “By this man here.”

The Terminator stops walking when she grabs his hand, and holds himself at attention next to her. She leans into his side and tries to ignore the treacherous flutter of her heart as he effortlessly takes on her weight and curls his hand over her hip, where she’s placed it. To any casual observer, the action would read as possessive.

The flower seller takes a step back but rallies. “What does he have that I don’t?”

“Brains, brawn, looks, loyalty, I could go on, but I think that’s more than enough to go on, don’t you?” Sarah puts her hand on the Terminator’s back and gives a subtle push to start them walking again. “Later,” she tosses over her shoulder to the flower seller before leaving him behind. She stays tucked into the Terminator’s side for a few more steps before muttering, “Okay, that’s good enough, you can let me go now." The Terminator lets her go without a word, and she steps away. The memory of his warmth pressed up against her side takes her by surprise. She would have thought he’d feel cold, if she’d thought about it at all, but then she remembers. Living tissue. Of course he’d be warm to the touch.

When they get back to the apartment, she feels compelled to address what just happened, having no idea what is going on in the Terminator’s head.

“Thanks for helping me out there,” she says.

“No problemo,” the Terminator says.

Sarah smiles at the reminder of her son teaching him how to speak more casually. She wonders if he’s doing it to put her at ease, or if he just talks that way now. “I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable back there.”

“No.” The Terminator goes to his habitual lookout at the window.

“…all right.” Sarah can feel herself blushing. She retreats to her bedroom and doesn’t mention it again.

The school year draws to an end, and the year-end parent teacher conferences creep up without warning.

“Ben should go too,” John says when he presents the slip of paper inviting Sarah and Ben Connor to the school.

Sarah stares at the paper and tries to ignore the heavy silence coming from the Terminator’s area of the living room. She takes a breath, looks up, and meets the Terminator’s eyes. “Do you want to go? You don’t have to.”

“I will go. It will strengthen our back stories.”

“That it will.” Sarah nods. “Okay. If Ben’s all right with it, so am I.”

“Cool! I told all my teachers about him, it’ll be so cool for them to actually meet him.”

Sarah narrows her eyes. “What exactly have you been saying?”

John looks suspiciously innocent. “Nothing big. Just that he’s awesome and can totally take anyone in a fight and knows all sorts of stuff about survival and cool stuff like that.”

Sarah rubs her temples. “Great.”

John’s homeroom teacher looks predictably intimidated by the Terminator, but rallies and sticks his hand out to shake theirs. “Mr. and Mrs. Connor, so good to see you.”

“Same here,” Sarah says cordially. They go into the classroom, and she and the Terminator sit at two of the school desks while the teacher leans against the table in the front of the room. The Terminator cuts a comical figure crammed behind a child’s desk, and Sarah turns away to hide her smile as he sits straight and tall and looks at the teacher with an attentive face.

“John’s a delight to have in class, and I have almost nothing bad to say with regard to his behavior,” the teacher begins, and Sarah winces. “I do have to mention that he is unusually eager to engage in physical violence. We’re all a little concerned at his eagerness.”

“Oh dear,” Sarah says and tries to look concerned and not defensive.

“We have some suggestions about how you could support him at home so that he learns to focus more on non-violent conflict resolution. For example, the next time you two have a disagreement, you could involve him, so that he learns how to talk an issue out. How do you two feel about that?”

“I feel that’s definitely something we could do. Right, honey?” Sarah looks at the Terminator and tries to catch his eyes. He keeps looking at the teacher. “Ben?” She prompts.

The Terminator turns to look at her. She can almost see the gears clicking in his head. “Right.”

“I also think you could tell him about disagreements you might have with the people you meet outside of the home, and about how you resolve those disagreements. Could you tell me of an example, perhaps?”

Sarah opens her mouth, but all she can think of is the Terminator, slamming a man’s face into a table to protect her honor and wiping the floor with the man’s friends to protect her safety. The silence stretches.

“I specialize in conflict resolution,” The Terminator says. Sarah can feel panic rise within her. She opens and closes her mouth.

“That’s great, Ben.” The teacher nods encouragingly.

“At work, I often deal with angry customers. They are quick to leave after I explain the situation to them.”

“Clear communication, excellent. I think you could really help John if you mention this to him, as a strong male role model,” the teacher says excitedly.

The Terminator has been a great role model for John, Sarah thinks distractedly. He’s been an even better father figure, always patient, never dismissive when John asks for his attention. The teacher is still talking, but Sarah can’t stop thinking about how right the Terminator has been for them, how easily he’s integrated into their family unit. She goes through the motions of the rest of the parent-teacher conference, shaking hands and agreeing to talk with John about non-violence, and soon she and the Terminator are walking out the exit with the other parents.

Sarah grabs the Terminator’s arm, and he immediately stops and turns to her. She stares up at him and wonders, what does he want? She knows what she wants. She figures it’s time to let him know.

“I want to kiss you,” she says. The Terminator looks steadily back at her. The silence stretches. “What do you want,” she forces herself to ask through rising embarrassment.

The Terminator cocks his head to the side. She waits, giving him time to think it through. The parking lot is almost empty now with a few stragglers driving past them to the exit. “I want to try,” he says.

“Okay,” she says. She waits, but he doesn’t move. She reaches up to frame his face with her hands and pulls him towards her. “Come here,” she says on a laugh. The kiss starts out stiff, but he relaxes into it, and suddenly Sarah is able to do the same.

They walk home, Sarah holding his hand and feeling giddy, and when they get back, John is already asleep. The Terminator starts to let go of her hand, but she holds on tighter and tugs him into her room. He’s a quick study once she starts taking off her clothes, and his extensive knowledge of human anatomy does him credit as he begins to learn the curves and sharp edges of her body. She tries to please him in return, and she thinks she succeeds, if his reaction is anything to go by. All in all, it’s one of the better nights of Sarah’s life.

John is already awake and at the breakfast table when Sarah and the Terminator walk out of her room in the morning, Sarah having asked him to stay in the bed and hold her the night before, not willing to let go of the bliss of newfound intimacy. John grins at them, and Sarah lets go of the last of her uncertainty about the new dynamic to the relationship between the three of them.

“So you’re a couple now,” he says.

Sarah thinks about it, looks up at the Terminator and then back at her son. “Yup.”

“About time.”

Sarah reaches out and ruffles her son’s hair before going to get herself breakfast. The Terminator goes to look out his usual window, and Sarah sits next to her son and feels the corners of her mouth stretch up into an unstoppable smile.

They’re going to be all right.


End file.
